Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman (English: Harry S. Truman, May 8, 1884 - December 26, 1972), an American Democratic politician, served as the 32nd Vice President of the United States (1945) and the 33rd President of the United States (1945-1953). Truman was born in Missouri and served in the Army during World War I and fought in France. After returning to China, he started his own business in the clothing industry. In 1922, he entered politics as a county judge in his hometown of Missouri; in 1935, he became a federal senator from that state. Early in World War II, Truman led a Senate committee investigating military discipline. In early 1945, he became the Vice President of the United States; in April of that year, the then President Roosevelt died in office, and Truman immediately took over and became the 33rd President of the United States. After Truman took office, a large number of events occurred that had a profound impact on the world structure. First, the Allied forces defeated Nazi Germany, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrendered and the official end of World War II; then came the establishment of the United Nations, the implementation of the "Marshall Plan" aimed at rebuilding Europe, the confrontation between the Truman Doctrine and communism, the beginning of the Cold War, the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party in China, the establishment of NATO, and the outbreak of the Korean War. Many wars resulted in 44,000 U.S. soldiers being killed and missing, and dealt a huge blow to Truman's plan to win a third term, eventually forcing him to give up his re-election bid. Subsequently, in the 1952 election, Republican presidential candidate Dwight Eisenhower defeated Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson and became president the following year, ending the Democratic Party's 20-year rule. Truman's presidency encountered a new, chaotic economic cycle. Shortages of supplies, frequent strikes, and controversies over the veto of the Taft-Hartley Act all characterized the time. Although Truman was re-elected as president in 1948, the Democratic Party failed to gain a majority in Congress, resulting in the failure of almost all of his "good government" plans. Even so, he took the lead in desegregating the military within the military through executive orders, and presided over the second "Red Scare" in response to the situation, dismissing thousands of Communist sympathizers from government departments who might influence national affairs. But at the same time, hundreds of officials appointed by him were forced to resign due to a series of financial scandals. The "Truman Doctrine" and "containment policy" during Truman's term had a profound impact. As a result, the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union underwent fundamental changes, turning from allies to enemies, ushering in the Cold War era.